Why do I need to run as administrator for unit tests to work?

Question

When I run Visual Studio Professional 2013 under my regular user account, I can debug/test ASP.NET applications but I can't run the unit tests for some reason. It looks like it discovers the unit tests at first ("Discover tests finished: 4 found") but then doesn't run them ("no tests found to run").

When I run VS as administrator, it works. I got the idea from Why does visual studio 2012 not find my tests? but the answers don't explain why it makes a difference. Running unit tests doesn't seem like something that should require admin rights.

What's the nature of the unit tests - are you using the built in testing (mstest) or some other framework? — Damien_The_Unbeliever, Jul 20 '15 at 06:52
Yes, it's built-in testing (MSTest) - `using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting` — wrschneider, Jul 20 '15 at 13:52

CharithJ · Answer 1 · 2015-07-20T10:49:04.913

1

Why do I need to run as administrator for unit tests to work

It depends on the nature of your test cases.

Why Visual Studio should run as an Administrator.

Developing for Windows Azure

Coded UI tests

Using IIS with web application

Developing with WCF Profiling

Installing updates for various extensions (like NuGet)

You can set devenv.exe to Run as Administrator under Properties and Compatibility tab as a workaround.

edited Jul 20 '15 at 10:49

answered Jul 20 '15 at 01:32

CharithJ

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I'm not sure those apply - I have unit tests for a controller that are just making normal method calls and assertions. – wrschneider Jul 20 '15 at 13:54
@wrschneider: May be a VS bug... https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/807771/visual-studio-2013-test-explorer-only-works-if-run-as-administrator – CharithJ Jul 21 '15 at 11:15
@CharithJ - the VS Bug link just goes to bing lol – Dinglemeyer NeverGonnaGiveUUp May 17 '23 at 14:38

Why do I need to run as administrator for unit tests to work?

1 Answers1